1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to educational tools, systems, and methods for promoting learning of basic skills by young children, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for teaching young children to pronounce and form letters properly, and more particularly still to a learning tool and method for teaching children to write their name for the first time including a system for memorializing such event in the form of a frameable keepsake.
2. Preliminary Discussion
Most children learn to verbalize and correctly pronounce their personal name fairly easily by repeatedly hearing such name spoken by their parents, brothers, sisters, and others in a close relationship with the child, in combination with certain physical queues such as the person when speaking to the child directly facing and addressing the child, as well as various hand and body signals and movements. As the child learns to talk, he or she will naturally mimic and repeat the speech patterns of others, and eventually will come to associate certain words or sounds with his or her name. In contrast, learning to write one's name for the first time is substantially more difficult for the child, and is the result of several learning processes coming together simultaneously. First, the child must learn to properly pronounce his or her name, which as indicated above may or may not have already been learned, and which pronunciation is an important factor in developing good spelling skills. Second, the child must learn to recognize the individual letters and/or characters of the alphabet of the language being learned or spoken, and then to identify and associate certain of these letters with his or her name. Third, the child must develop the coordination and manual dexterity required to use and manipulate a writing utensil such as a pen, marker, stylus or the like to complete the individual letter forming strokes of his or her name. All of such skills must be sufficiently developed in order for the child to be able to write his or her name satisfactorily.
3. Description of Related Art
Numerous educational and learning aids, systems, and devices for teaching basic reading and writing skills to children such as saying, spelling, and writing letters and numbers are known in the prior art. The most relevant-appearing of such references known to the present inventor are discussed briefly below.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,063,164 issued to M. N. Pellegrino et al. entitled “Educational Device” discloses a device for teaching correct penmanship comprised of a slate having a coated wax base and a translucent impression sheet applied over the base, whereby pressure exerted on the impression sheet causes it to stick to the wax base, leaving an impression on the slate. Letter templates are also provided which are placed on the impression sheet and a stylus is used to practice the letter forming strokes using the templates, which strokes are visible on the slate.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,271,884 issued to R. E. Roberson entitled “Means of Teaching a Foreign Language” discloses a workbook for learning foreign words including several templates for practicing writing such words. In one arrangement, each pair of open facing pages includes on the left-hand page at least one picture plus both the English and Spanish spellings of the item depicted in the picture, while on the right-hand page the same picture and English spelling are provided, with a blank line on which the user is instructed to write the Spanish spelling. Roberson is primarily a device for recalling and learning foreign words, but does not include a means for practicing penmanship.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,960,382 issued to A. W. Alford on entitled “Educational Writing Board Kit” discloses a kit containing a colored writing pad having a smooth waxed surface plus a translucent plastic sheet which is placed over the pad. Parallel rows of a hook and loop fastener material are provided on the front surface of the sheet, and one or more grooved numerical or alphabetical letter templates having a matching fastener material on their underside are secured to the sheet. Pressure applied in the grooves of the templates by a stylus causes the color of the surface of the writing pad to be visible through the translucent plastic sheet, so that children can repeatedly practice writing and spelling numbers and letters using the kit. A container for storing the templates is also provided and is foldably attachable to the writing page.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,688 issued to E. L. Clamp entitled “Magnetic Stencil Letters” discloses a set of magnetic letters having grooves in the surface of the letters for tracing purposes. The letters are placed on a steel board surface with a piece of paper situated between the board and letters, so that a child can practice writing the letters and form his or her name or other words by tracing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,338 issued to A. G. Kapiloff entitled “Method for Training Children in the Art of Dialogue Writing,” discloses a bound book of individual scenes with empty captions, whereby a child or student is made to study the scenes and then practice writing dialogue for the story in the captions. The caption areas are erasable.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,665 issued to S. G. Engel et al. entitled “Teaching Book” discloses a book for teaching and practicing writing letters and numbers. While similar in arrangement to the present invention in some respects, one drawback is that after completing all of the exercises there is no place provided for the child to write his or her full or complete name for the first time. In addition, Engel does not provide a system for memorializing such first time writing of his or her name properly as in the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,381 issued to M. L. Sundberg et al. entitled “Educational Display Device and Method” discloses an alphabet letter forming and writing teaching system having different display modes, one of which includes a letter template having arrows showing the proper strokes to be used to form the letter, along with a grooved practice template.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,050,824 issued to G. J Stuart entitled “Representation of Letters of an Alphabet” discloses a letter learning book having separate pages dedicated to learning each letter of the alphabet, which pages are cut in half to form separately turnable top and bottom page sections, with the letter shown in capital letters on the top section and in lowercase letters on the bottom section. The surfaces of the letters have a raised outline and are designed to have a different feel from the page surface and other letters, so that the outline of the letters can be felt and traced by the user's hand.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,142,783 issued to M. A. Rocha on entitled “Handwriting Template System” discloses a set of letter and number templates that are securable in a template holder over a piece of paper. The system also includes a plurality of pages or sheets which are divided into several rows and columns, with the letter to be formed shown in the first column, a stencil for the letter provided in the second column, and several blank spaces in the following columns in which the user can practice writing the letters freehand.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,416,329 issued to K. Hirota et al. entitled “Writing Device for Practice in Writing Characters” discloses a magnetic writing device with a character model attached. Users can thus repeatedly practice writing the characters on the magnetic display.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,966,777 issued to T. Robotham entitled “Tool Device, System and Method for Teaching Reading” discloses a flip-book designed to teach reading skills to young children, in which pictures related to indicia of letters are shown; however, such book is not designed to teach penmanship and writing or serve as a memorializing device in the same manner as the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,080,983 issued to K. C. Barker entitled “Flipbook for Making Words According to Orthographic Patterns” discloses a flipbook for teaching word structure to students. The word parts are color coded into vowels, prefixes and suffixes, and the like. Such flipbook is designed to teach the more sophisticated concept of word structure rather than teaching children to properly form or write the letters of their name for the first time.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,140,643 issued to M. P. Smith entitled “Apparatus and Method for Teaching Early Learning Skills” discloses a device comprised of a binder having a plurality of removable pages containing various symbols to which matching number or letter symbols can be attached by Velcro. Instruction lines as to the pen strokes needed to form the letters are provided.
U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2005/0106538 issued to R. G. Freeman at al. entitled “Display Apparatus for Teaching Writing” discloses another device for teaching and practicing letter or word writing using an electronic display device and pen. Such device is in electronic form and users can practice writing letters or words over and over plus reference points to aid in writing are provided.
In addition to teaching children early learning skills such as to read, write, and spell, parents often wish to memorialize certain events in the early lives of their children, such as their birth, or the remembrance of such event for sentimental reasons. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,607,337 issued to G. C. Hallahan entitled “Infant Memorabilia System” provides a system for preserving the hand and foot prints of an infant. Wall plaques and the like are also known for recognizing a child's accomplishments, and photographs and videos, of course, can be used to record events as they happen, such as a photograph of a child first crawling, walking, hitting a ball with a bat or the like. However, it is difficult and rare to preserve as a keepsake or remembrance a record of the actual first physical achievement or occurrence of an act or task, since such moments are inherently unpredictable. The present inventor has therefore conceived of a system for memorializing the occurrence of a child writing his or her name properly for the first time by providing a keepsake device as part of the present educational tool or workbook system, wherein after a child has practiced writing and forming the individual letters of his or her name over a period of time, a final separate page or sheet is provided on which the child writes his or her full name for the first time. Such page is removable from the workbook and is suitable for framing or otherwise converting into a keepsake item. In addition, the entire name writing practice book can be retained as part of the family library of keepsakes. In such manner, the actual occurrence of a child's first successful writing of his or her full name is recorded and memorialized so that such event can be referred to as a happy remembrance in future years.